Weinhold v. Wolff
| Decision Date | 23 October 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-1589,94-1589 |
| Citation | 555 N.W.2d 454 |
| Parties | Dennis WEINHOLD and Ruth Weinhold, Appellees, v. Norman WOLFF and Pam Wolff, Appellants. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
James A. Pugh, Lori L. Koop, and Edward G. Parker of Morain, Burlingame, Pugh & Koop, West Des Moines, and James W. Gailey, Newell, for appellants.
Willis J. Hamilton of the Hamilton Law Firm, P.C., Storm Lake, for appellees.
Eldon L. McAfee of Beving, Swanson & Forrest, P.C., Des Moines, for amicus curiae Iowa Pork Producers Association.
Christina L. Gault of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, West Des Moines, for amicus curiae Farm Bureau.
Considered en banc.
Landowners in close proximity to a commercial hog feeding and hog confinement facility sued the owner of the facility. The landowners alleged nuisance and negligence and prayed for damages and injunctive relief. The facility owner answered, asserted affirmative defenses, and counterclaimed. The parties tried the case to the court solely on the landowners' nuisance claim. Following trial, the district court concluded the landowners had proven the facility was a temporary nuisance.
Iowa Code section 352.11(1) (1993) grants a defense against nuisance suits to owners of farmland approved as agricultural land. The district court refused to apply section 352.11(1) to the unique facts of this case. The court concluded that section 352.11(1) would work an unconstitutional taking of the landowners' preexisting nuisance claim.
The court awarded the landowners $45,000 in damages for their pain and suffering, but refused to grant them injunctive relief. The damage award was in two parts. In part one, the court awarded the landowners $9000 for pain and suffering that occurred before the county approved the facility's land as an agricultural area. In part two, the court awarded the landowners $36,000 for pain and suffering that occurred after approval and through the end of trial. The facility owners appealed, and the landowners cross-appealed.
As discussed in detail in the analysis of these issues, we affirm as modified in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
In 1977 Dennis and Ruth Weinhold purchased about four acres of real property in Buena Vista County for $8000. They have lived on this acreage since the purchase. They raise various breeds of alternative livestock such as deer, emu, rhea, antelope, and occasionally, elk.
In February 1974 Norman and Pam Wolff purchased an eighty-acre tract of land approximately one-half mile directly south of the Weinholds' land. The Wolffs originally planted all the land with grain. Since November 1990 the Wolffs have operated a commercial hog feeding and confinement facility on part of this land, which they commute to from their home located about two and one-half miles away.
The facility is substantial and occupies about four acres of the eighty-acre tract. The Wolffs have run the facility at full capacity since its inception and finish about 2080 hogs per year. The building used to house the hogs is approximately forty-one feet by one hundred sixty-one feet. About 6256 square feet are devoted to hog production. The building runs east and west.
An integral part of the facility is a 500,000-gallon, uncovered, earthen, waste collection basin. The basin is located to the east of the building used to house the hogs. The basin is 130-feet long, 110-feet wide, and 14.5-feet deep.
The hogs are kept within pens located over a slatted floor. The waste falls through the slats and into two-foot pits underneath the hog confinement building. When waste accumulation in the pits reaches sixteen inches, a plug is pulled. The waste flows through an eight-inch diameter underground pipe east to the outside of the building where the waste enters the bottom of the earthen basin.
The pits are emptied every four weeks on an alternating basis. Each time the pits are emptied, about 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of waste are deposited into the basin. Twice a year, the waste is emptied from the basin and applied to area fields as fertilizer. This waste is often applied to fields near the Weinholds' property.
In the fall of 1991, the Wolffs and several farmers neighboring the facility applied for an "agricultural area" designation for the land on which the facility sits. The Wolffs filed the application with the Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors pursuant to what is now Iowa Code section 352.6. The board approved the application on October 8. This was about a year after the Wolffs began the hog feeding and confinement operation.
On July 29, 1992, the Weinholds filed a two-count petition at law. Count I alleged the Wolffs' commercial hog feeding and confinement operation was a nuisance because it created noxious and offensive odors that pervaded the Weinholds' property. The Weinholds asked for money damages and injunctive relief to abate the nuisance. Count II alleged the noxious odors emanating from the Wolffs' hog feeding and confinement operation were the proximate result of the Wolffs' negligence. In this count, the Weinholds asked for money damages.
The Wolffs answered, denied liability, asserted an affirmative defense, and counterclaimed. The Wolffs asserted the affirmative defense under what is now Iowa Code section 352.11.
The Wolffs' counterclaim alleged the Weinholds' suit was frivolous and caused the Wolffs' mental anguish, inconvenience, and expense. The Wolffs asked for damages that would fairly compensate them for the harm resulting from the Weinholds' actions.
Although the case contained both legal and equitable issues, the parties agreed before trial to try the case in equity. During trial, the Weinholds withdrew their negligence claim. The Wolffs withdrew their counterclaim at the close of the evidence.
In their appeal, the Wolffs challenge the district court's finding that the facility (1) constituted a nuisance and (2) did not have the section 352.11 defense against nuisance suits. The Wolffs also challenge the damage award.
The Weinholds challenge the district court's finding that the nuisance was temporary and not permanent. The Weinholds also complain because the court did not award for (1) the diminished market value of their real property, (2) special damages occurring after trial, and (3) injunctive relief to abate the nuisance.
In Iowa, a party may sue to enjoin a nuisance and for damages either in equity or at law. Friedman v. City of Forest City, 239 Iowa 112, 119, 30 N.W.2d 752, 756 (1948). Whichever forum the plaintiff chooses, the plaintiff may obtain the same relief. Id. Where, however, the plaintiff seeks only monetary relief, the plaintiff is limited to a law action. Id. If the plaintiff chooses the law forum, the district court must still decide the appropriateness of injunctive relief. Woody v. Machin, 380 N.W.2d 727, 731 (Iowa 1986). In deciding the appropriateness of injunctive relief, the district court must make a comparative appraisal of all the factors in the case. Id.
Weinholds sued at law and asked for damages and injunctive relief. The case was therefore triable at law, but the appropriateness of injunctive relief was solely for the district court to decide. Because the parties agreed to try the case in equity, however, our review is not at law but de novo. See Iowa R.App.P. 4; Kane v. City Council, 537 N.W.2d 718, 721 (Iowa 1995). We give weight to the district court's findings of fact, but we are not bound by them. Iowa R.App.P. 14(f)(7). Even so, we are especially deferential to the district court's assessment of witness credibility. Boekeloo v. Board of Review, 529 N.W.2d 275, 276 (Iowa 1995).
A. Nuisance. The first issue we consider is whether the Wolffs' hog feeding and confinement operation was a nuisance.
1. Applicable law. Under Iowa Code section 657.1,
[w]hatever is injurious to health, indecent, or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as essentially to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, is a nuisance, and a civil action by ordinary proceedings may be brought to enjoin and abate the same and to recover damages sustained on account thereof.
(Emphasis added.)
Additionally, under Iowa Code section 657.2,
[t]he following are nuisances: ... using any building or other place for the exercise of any trade, ... which, by occasioning noxious exhalations, offensive smells, or other annoyances, becomes injurious and dangerous to the health, comfort, or property of individuals....
These statutory provisions do not modify the common-law's application to nuisances. Bates v. Quality Ready-Mix Co., 261 Iowa 696, 703, 154 N.W.2d 852, 857 (1967). These provisions are skeletal in form, and the courts look to the common law to fill in the gaps.
A private nuisance is "an actionable interference with a person's interest in the private use and enjoyment of the person's land." Id. Parties must use their own property in such a manner that they will not unreasonably interfere with or disturb their neighbor's reasonable use and enjoyment of the neighbor's property. Id.
Whether a lawful business is a nuisance depends on the reasonableness of conducting the business in the manner, at the place, and under the circumstances in question. Id. Thus the existence of a nuisance does not depend on the intention of the party who created it. Patz v. Farmegg Prods., Inc., 196 N.W.2d 557, 561 ...
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